I'll start with an apology - last week, for reasons that can only be attributed to the onset of premature dementia, I completely got Alan Tarrant's name wrong in reporting the painting party in the pits. So Al, to you and all the mates who have ribbed you in the intervening period, this blog is dedicated to you and all the hard work that you put in at Swindon Speedway.

And so to Thursday and a fixture against Ipswich ...

Mick Richards runs a local pressure washing company (details can be found in the left hand pane of this site) and gives up each Thursday to come up to the track to clean the banners, kickboards and the air fence. He is another one of the unsung heroes who contribute so much to making the sport of speedway what it is today. Without Mick's invaluable assistance we would all be in trouble.

It's important that the track is watered regularly and correctly. Ronnie was actually at the track at 3am watering, just to get water into the shale before the sun came up. If we dump too much water down a lot will simply run off the banking and end up in the main drain on turn 1. There's also a chance that it will make some areas of the track unnecessarily boggy. We hope that we have got no "dodgy areas" on our track - I almost fell off my seat when I heard the Sky commentators praising our track while they were at Ipswich last week - it's not often that we get praise from them! Seriously though, there have been so many comments about track conditions in matches this year, and I've seen a few distinctly "iffy" tracks. I am frequently being asked why there seems to be such disquiet about tracks this year. I remember Gerald Richter talking passionately about track preparation; he said that no track curator sets out to create a bad track. I know - we all feel bad if the track at Blunsdon does not meet up to our exacting standards. Perhaps the reasons for "dodgy" tracks is down to the level of equipment given to track workers or the amount of time that they have to work on their tracks. In Poland, and Sweden, where there is no joint usage of stadia track staff can work every day of the week to get a track ready. Here, we are restricted by the demands of others users - at Swindon we are guaranteed Thursdays and the occasional Sunday but otherwise we have to fit in and around the demands of other users. And a track doesn't just come around by chance - it needs to be worked at and simply needs the time putting in.

We put in a great deal of work on the track over the winter and that has put us in good stead when the demands of the season are high. We also spend a lot of time "putting the track to bed" after a meeting. Anyone who is in the bars at Blunsdon will see Punch and others driving round and round dragging the material back and smoothing down the surface in readiness for the next week. By the time that we leave it all that is needed is some serious packing and we could run another meeting. The track is left to settle naturally before the next Thursday.

Another factor is the reaction of riders to tracks. This year, more than I can recall, there seems to be an even greater level of track criticism from riders. The old adage "If I rode well, it was down to me; if I rode badly it was down to the track" does not always hold sway but there is a lot of it about.

But back to matters of the day. With all the banners and rubber kickboards drying I hooked up the blue catch netting and attached the air fence to the safety fence before ambling back up to the pits for a cup of tea.

Punch and Adam were hard at work loading up another trailer of shale for top dressing the track.

Ronnie had started up the large motorway blade and was making more room at the back of the pits by clearing away loose material. Not only have we a speedway meeting tonight, we also have a 13 heat quad bike meeting as well and the 16 or so quads need somewhere to park whilst the speedway meeting is in progress.

With its new clutch plate and couple of new tyres, the blade is a real beast of a machine. The vast diesel engines roars, a puff of black smoke from the exhaust pipe and it hurtles forward pushing a great mound of dirt out of the way.

Ronnie is clearly enjoying himself!

I've mentioned our extraordinary JCB before but it's worth covering again. It is one of Punch's favourite machines, which is just as well because you wont get me driving it. With all the responsiveness of an oil tanker, it lurches to the right when you hit the brakes and takes an age to turn. The lack of any form of power assisted steering makes it heavy when it's unloaded. When the bucket is full of shale it actually takes two people to turn the wheel. Above, Adam hangs out of the cab pulling the wheel while Punch adds his considerable strength and still it takes a 20 point turn to turn it through 180 degrees.

For those of a delicate disposition, I apologise for the photograph above. In the period after lunch Ron drives round the track on one of the small Kubota tractors with the water cart behind him. Naked to the waist, he appears for all the world like on of those ornamental buddhas that can be purchased from garden centres. He realises that there is no escaping the camera of the blog and resigns himself to the inevitable.

Adam and I load up the kickboards onto the van and take them out onto the track. During the next hour we attach all the kickboards and the banners to the air fence.

Jarek Hampel and Piotr Swiderski occupy two of the heat leader roles and can't be relishing the prospect of match races against Leigh Adams and the new Robins sensation, Matej Zagar.

Further up in the pits complex, Trevor Claridge from the Hospitality Care Team is showing guests around the pits area and introducing members of the Robins side. This is one important "Back stage" role at Swindon and helps to keep the public and supporters in touch with the team that bears the name of the home town.

Ryan Fisher's kevlars hang rather ominously from his pit area - is this a fate that awaits those riders who fail? Laughter resounds around the pits as Ryan and Cory Gathercole meet up to discuss events at Somerset the night before. Both doubling up riders for the Robins, they were in action for their respective Premier League teams, Somerset and Edinburgh, at Highbridge in Somerset. Meeting up late in the event, Cory explains that he was really keen to beat Ryan and had mounted a three lap assault upon the American, all to no avail. But rather than shutting off and accepting second best, our young Aussie wound it on for one last gasp blast around turn 1 and 2. Picking up drive and momentum down the back straight, he caught Ryan's back wheel and took off towards the fence at frightening speed. Demolishing the fence and ending up on the grass bank beyond it, he explained to me how he avoided serious injury. "I realised I was in trouble so took my hands off the handlebars, threw my arms out wide and shouted F.... as loudly as I could until I was through the fence. It seems to have relaxed me."

Elsewhere a very relaxed Travis McGowan chats with young Richard Sweetman, brought in from Premier League Birmingham for his first taste of Elite League action this season.

For reasons that I have yet to fathom, there have been changes in the Robins pits this week. Stoj's departure was sad - but I think he felt that the pressure was just too much and I think he will be a real bonus to any Premier League team. His replacement, Paul Hurry, wont be in the side until the 11th June and I just assumed he would take over Stoj's area, the one nearest to the pit gate. But no. Simon Stead has moved from one end of the pits to the one just vacated by Stoj, Jurica has moved down to the end pit where Steady started and Paul will no doubt move into the space vacated by JUrica. The advantage of having Matej and Jurica side by side is clear - they are good friends, share some traveling and the older Zagar will be able to keep an eye on our very young Croatian star.

I take a close look at Jurica's engine - FRJ stamped on it. Fin Rune Jensen (or something like that). He's one of the top tuners and it's clear that Jurica means business this year, certainly if his home form is anything to go by. One factor that is apparent is that he has a clear dislike of bumpy away tracks.

Matej's own bikes have now arrived and look immaculate. A closer look at his engines shows the legend "Zagar engines" machined into the case and that he is now aboard GM engines in a JRM frame.

As the riders make their way to the changing rooms, I venture out onto the track to meet up with my favourite referee, the delightful Christina Turnbull. It's Christina's second visit to Blunsdon and it's always a pleasure to welcome her to the Abbey. Let's face it, I don't get a cuddle from any other referee and also it is so refreshing to hear officials prepared to chat with track staff and be so very friendly and open as they go about their business. I don't even mind when Mike Hunt points out a couple of small maintenance jobs that need doing.

No practice on the track before racing - just both teams introduced on the parade truck and then back to the pits, the captains jumping off the truck on turn 4 to toss the coin. I'm more than happy with this arrangement - watching riders trying out practice starts on the exits of corners is no fun, especially when we've worked so hard to get the surface smooth for them.

It's going to be a long meeting tonight - 15 heats of speedway followed by 13 heats of Quad speedway - so the track staff take plenty of breaks between heats. During a tea break I come across Travis once again in deep conversation with young Mr Sweetman. When Travis was captain at Reading, shortly after Mr Hancock walked, I watched the way that he encouraged all of his team mates in the pits, and was impressed by it. He hasn't had much chance to do this while at Swindon because his own form has been less than he would have liked but now he is really on the gas, scoring points wherever he goes and is now back working in the pits with other riders.

A welcome guest on the pit wall is Swindon's newly signed reserve, Paul Hurry. Let's hope that his stay at Swindon is long and profitable for all concerned.

Centre green anchorman, Clive Fisher, keeps up interest with a series of centre green interviews, including one with the resurgent Travis. The match itself is horribly one sided, the first 6 heats resulting in a score line of 30 points to 6 for the home team.

Fortunately the second half of the fixture is more even but the end result (64 - 28) does not make good reading for the impartial fan (and less so for a Witches's supporter).

The meeting comes to a close at 9.25 so we have just 35 minutes left for the quads. In fact they manage all 13 heats and a parade and practice session in that time but I must admit that I didn't see an awful lot of the action.

And so to the end of a long day. We pack everything away, then, while Punch grades the track back, Roy and I wash down all the kickboards. By the time we finish, Adam, Edwin, Jamie and the other stalwarts have packed up everything.

Punch hands over the grading duties to me and I get to drive the big tractor, which has power assisted steering and a really luxurious cab. While I drive round and round with a small blade and a mesh behind me, Punch come out with the water tanker and floods the racing line. In this way we should help the surface, now beautifully flat and even, to bind.